Obama As FDR

Walter Williams has a terrific piece on how Obama is more like FDR than Carter. If figures that if a Democrat wants to fundamentally change America, he would emulate the man who brought the welfare state to our shores.

One thing bothers me about this. FDR used WWII to extend state power and spread collective sacrifice across the land. Would it not be in Obama’s interest to get America in a major war? Leviathan cannot grow without crises.

Another question: since we owe so much money to China, would it be in the American state’s interest to foment a war with China and then declare our debts wiped clean off the books? Or am I getting into paranoid conspiracy theory lala-land here?

Yes, the more I think about it, the more unlikely it is that Obama would try to get us in a war with China. That’s the difference between the new left and FDR’s old left. Obama has made it clear that he wants America to be a humble servant to the world.

However, the warlike statements that come from China’s generals now and then indicate they might do something like attack Taiwan if they think they can get away with it. In that case would America be justified in declaring all debt to China null and void?

I think they’re just waiting for even the flimsiest of excuses to do exactly that. If we declared the debt null, that would be *hilarious*. I would like to see that. I doubt this administration would do it, though – I doubt they would do anything but surrender to their ideological masters.

Still, it would be great if we did. I think that’s probably one of the only things stopping them.

I hear they have a housing bubble going pretty bad right now because they followed the same government policies we did. It used to be that Communist countries did things that failed, which our leaders then tried to water down and emulate. Now it’s the other way around.

National Security Workforce to Address ‘Intersectionality’: do you ever get the sense that you’re in a waking nightmare? Money quote from the memo: “Our greatest asset in protecting the homeland and advancing our interests abroad is the talent and diversity of our national security workforce.”

Last Week Tonight on Donald Trump: bit long, but great takedown of the Trump mythos. In a more rational political environment, this would have killed his presidential campaign. I’m not sure it’ll make any difference.

A Responsibility I Take Seriously: nominee must be “without any particular ideology or agenda” and have “a keen understanding that justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook.” I sure hope the Republicans can hold the line on his nominations.

Trigger Warnings in Annapolis: I’m not sure why I expected the service academies to be bastions of academic freedom, but I did. It’s much worse than the universities since they’re far more hierarchical.

Announcing the Twitter Trust & Safety Council: this is within their rights, of course. Given the leftist leanings of the company and its assembled Council of Goodspeech, I suspect that some groups will get a pass and some will face suppression. Chilling at any rate.